User blog:GrumpyNinja/Writing More Professionally
I've been lurking around this wiki for some time, and one thing that stands out to me is how unpolished a lot of the pastas are. Many have interesting concepts, but the general quality of the writing greatly diminishes how enjoyable it is. Here are some tips for making your Pokepastas the best they can be! Keep in mind that I am just a kid with a laptop and that I am not an authority on writing in any way. If you think I should add to this post or remove something, please suggest it in a comment. Thanks! *'Use proper syntax (spelling, grammar, etc.)' It's really unfortunate when you're in the middle of reading an awesome story when a blatant mistake yanks you out of it. Suspension of disbelief is always important, especially in a horror story, and a mistake can easily remind the reader that they're only reading a fictitious tale. Even worse is when a word or sentence is completely indecipherable because of bad spelling or grammar. I suggest writing your story in a word processor with more advanced syntax checking techniques, such as Microsoft Word. *'Describe things in a great amount of detail.' This is also important for holding suspension of disbelief. The more specific you can be, the easier it is for the reader to picture the scene you're trying to create. In a creepypasta, at least in my opinion, this is where most of the scariness comes from. Just be careful not to blather about every last detail of something, especially if those details are irrelevant to the rest of the story. *'Vary your sentence structures.' "I opened the gift box. Pokemon Red was inside. I took it out. I ran to my room. I put it in my GameBoy." That sounds like a robot talking. Try "I opened the gift box to reveal a copy of Pokemon Red inside. I grabbed it and ran to my room so I could pop it into my GameBoy and play." Much more interesting, right? Try to write in a similar manner to how you would actually talk. Reading your story out loud can help with this. *'Spiff up your prose.' Show, don't tell! I'll put two examples here again: "A copy of Pokemon Red was in the box." "Inside the box lay a shining red cartridge. A Charizard, along with the game's title, was printed on the sticker labeling it." The second one is much more descriptive while still getting the point across. If you can squeeze in an extra adjective before a noun without interrupting the flow of your writing, do so! Using a more specific noun is good, too- "rock" vs. "boulder", for example. It makes reading your story much more enjoyable. *'Read it over when you're done.' I can't stress this enough. Reading your story over again helps you catch any mistakes you might have made before, and you might even see something that you can improve. Do you like your story? Would it be difficult or impossible to make it better? Great! Go publish it! Do you think it still needs a little work? Go back and fix it. It's a bit time-consuming, but it really helps. I hope this post was helpful to an aspring writer out there somewhere. Feel free to leave any thoughts you have in a comment. Thanks for reading! Category:Blog posts Category:Community Category:Meta